Misc recording Alfie's Theme

[mrblackbat]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boGT0VKZsFk


With some fun cartoon effect....

 

[skeller047]

 

[Colin the Bear]

I was expecting this tune.🤔

Listen to Alfie Tara Chuck by Colin the Bear on #SoundCloud

Alfie Tara Chuck

Listen to Alfie Tara Chuck by Colin the Bear #np on #SoundCloud

on.soundcloud.com

 

[mrblackbat]

If you're looking at Bacharach's song, Roland Kirk did a good version of it. Not my favourite song though.

 

[Kentishsax]

I was expecting this tune.🤔

Listen to Alfie Tara Chuck by Colin the Bear on #SoundCloud

Alfie Tara Chuck

Listen to Alfie Tara Chuck by Colin the Bear #np on #SoundCloud

on.soundcloud.com

Alfie's Theme is from the actual score by Sonny Rollins, not the end credit song by Burt Bacharach. I have the CD of the album that was recorded in America by Sonny and some handpicked musicians, with Oliver Nelson handling the arrangements but the actual soundtrack recorded for the film in London by Sonny, with British musicians, has never been released on an album.

 

[rhysonsax]

Alfie's Theme is from the actual score by Sonny Rollins, not the end credit song by Burt Bacharach. I have the CD of the album that was recorded in America by Sonny and some handpicked musicians, with Oliver Nelson handling the arrangements but the actual soundtrack recorded for the film in London by Sonny, with British musicians, has never been released on an album.

I bought the DVD of the film and with some careful editing managed to make myself the real musical soundtrack featuring Sonny and those British musicians (Stan Tracey, Rick Laird, Phil Seamen and Ronnie Scott). Dialogue intrudes on the music at various points.

When I last watched the film I did find it very dated with some obnoxious attitudes - or maybe that was the point.

Rhys

 

[Kentishsax]

I bought the DVD of the film and with some careful editing managed to make myself the real musical soundtrack featuring Sonny and those British musicians (Stan Tracey, Rick Laird, Phil Seamen and Ronnie Scott). Dialogue intrudes on the music at various points.

When I last watched the film I did find it very dated with some obnoxious attitudes - or maybe that was the point.

Rhys

Am I right in thinking Tubby Hayes played on it, too?

I have to say I've never watched the whole thing but this whole dated and attitudes biz doesn't roll with me. It is what is is, if one doesn't like it, then fine. But what does wind me up, is when the idiotic BBC bans any showings on their own channels, of It Ain't Half Hot Mum or puts a disclaimer, verbal or typographical, about 'date attitudes and language' and all this old nonsense, on showings of their other treasures, such as Fawlty Towers, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em and so on and on the radio, preceding broadcasts of Round The Horne and Beyond Our Ken, for instance.

 

[mrblackbat]

When I last watched the film I did find it very dated with some obnoxious attitudes - or maybe that was the point.

I think that is the point; Alfie is not a nice man, and at the end of the film he's reflecting on his choices and how that's led him to be somewhat lonely. I recall reading something about the ending with the dog being added because without it it was felt to be too brutal.

It is what is is, if one doesn't like it, then fine.

I think the point is to reflect on how society has changed, and values have changed. There are an awful lot of skeletons in the past, and some of where we are now is built on those skeletons. Not something to be proud of at all.

But this is getting close to politics.... not sure if that's allowed discussion focus on this site?

 

[rhysonsax]

Am I right in thinking Tubby Hayes played on it, too?

This website says:

Recorded at Twickenham Film Studios, the soundtrack features saxophonist Sonny Rollins along with some of Britain’s finest jazz musicians, Keith Christie on trombone, Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott on tenor sax, pianist and arranger Stan Tracey, Dave Goldberg plays guitar and Phil Seaman on drums. There is some confusion as to who plays bass, with various sources saying it’s either Kenny Napper, Rick Laird, or Johnny Hawksworth.​

​

It seems that Rick Laird was definitely there for some of the sessions as he later said, “When Sonny Rollins called me from New York and asked me to do it, I was really thrilled,” Laird recalls. “It was really interesting, because we had no music to work from. We just went to the studio, and while they ran the film for us, we improvised to the scenes taking place on the screen. We had a few basic themes, but for the most part, it was all spontaneous.” It is possible that the other two may have played on one or other of the days spent recording.​

​

There is no ‘official’ recording of this soundtrack, which has always been credited to Sonny Rollins as the sole writer on the project. However, the song “Little Malcolm Loves His Dad” is believed to have been written by Tracey.​

Three months after recording the music heard in the film, Rollins went into Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, studio on January 26, 1966 to record a full album of music utilizing what he had written for the movie and afterward expanded upon.​

​

Produced by Bob Thiele, the Alfie ‘soundtrack’ album was arranged by the supremely talented Oliver Nelson and features some fine performances Rollins, Phil Woods on Alto Saxophone, Bob Ashton on Tenor Saxophone, Danny Bank, Baritone Saxophone, with trombonists, J.J. Johnson and Jimmy Cleveland, Walter Booker on bass, Frankie Dunlop on drums, pianist, Roger Kellaway and the great Kenny Burrell on guitar – his playing on the opening cut “Alfie’s Theme” is sublime.​

​

The movie was not released in America until August 1966. Between its British premiere and US premiere, Howard Koch, the head of Paramount Pictures, asked Bacharach and David to come up with a song to feature over the end credits of the movie, which they duly did.​

​

Bacharach was told that Lewis Gilbert wanted Cilla Black to record the song, and the songwriter sent the demo he had cut in New York to London. Initially, Cilla, was reluctant to record it as she thought the name “Alfie” seemed like something you would call a dog. Eventually, she relented, but only on the condition that Bacharach fly to London to play piano on the session and write the arrangement.​

​

At Abbey Road, producer George Martin assembled a forty-eight piece orchestra, and Cilla’s manager Brian Epstein decided to film the whole thing. Bacharach pushed Cilla to her limits, having her do 29 takes of the vocal, despite Martin insisting that she had nailed it on the fourth take. The song was a big hit in the UK, making No.9 on the singles chart and a more modest No.95 in America.​

Rhys

 

[Colin the Bear]

Alfie was a rogue gigolo character. Much frowned upon at the time. An alternative, loose morals society story. Pushing the boundaries of censorship at the time and still relevant imo.
I didn't like the 2004 Jude Law version. It seemed watered down and missed the point of the original.

I like Cilla's version of the theme tune. Not a lot of people know that.

 

[mrblackbat]

The Bacharach song isn't the theme tune, originally it was only going to be used for the promotional stuff. Then it was amended to be the end credits.

Alfie's Theme by Rollins is the theme; opening credits and all with the version recorded in the UK.

 

[Jeanette]

But this is getting close to politics.... not sure if that's allowed discussion focus on this site?

Not allowed, it never ends well 😬

Jx

 

[Saxlicker]

Am I right in thinking Tubby Hayes played on it, too?

I have to say I've never watched the whole thing but this whole dated and attitudes biz doesn't roll with me. It is what is is, if one doesn't like it, then fine. But what does wind me up, is when the idiotic BBC bans any showings on their own channels, of It Ain't Half Hot Mum or puts a disclaimer, verbal or typographical, about 'date attitudes and language' and all this old nonsense, on showings of their other treasures, such as Fawlty Towers, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em and so on and on the radio, preceding broadcasts of Round The Horne and Beyond Our Ken, for instance.

I even saw a re-run of the 6 million dollar man and it had the same disclaimer.
OK we move on and move on usually for the better but these apologetic disclaimers about what was family entertainment in the 70's and meant no harm just get under my skin.
It's pretty lame to take offence at that level.